In the construction of clothes dryers for drying clothes and other articles, it is common practice to provide a rotating drum in which the clothes articles are placed. The rotating drum tumbles the clothes within the drum as air passes across the clothes removing moisture from the clothes. The air entering the dryer typically enters through apertures or air passages in the rear end head of the dryer which structurally closes off the rear end of the drum. A diffuser wall is secured across the end head and has a series of apertures distributed over the diffuser wall so as to evenly distribute air entering the dryer drum.
One such end head is shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,617 issued Dec. 16, 1986. In this patent, the rear end head is shown to have a series of enlarged circular apertures axially spaced about the rear end head. While this design permits for the entry of air into the dryer drum, it should be understood, that during certain periods of the cycle operation of the clothes dryer, the air entering the drum will be warmer than at other times. In the air flow characteristics of this drum, the air has a tendency to move directly through the apertures of the end head in a straight line fashion through the series of holes in the diffuser wall and into the dryer drum. This results in localized areas on the diffuser wall being much warmer than other areas. These localized hotter areas have a tendency, when contacting the clothes, to damage certain types of fabrics.
While it has been known to adjust the pattern of the apertures in the diffuser wall and the location of these apertures, there is still direct impingement of the air entering through the end head apertures onto the diffuser wall which results in localized heating of the diffuser wall. Further, the size of the apertures in the end head must be sufficiently large to permit for satisfactory air flow into the dryer drum without increasing unduly the power requirements of the blower motor associated with the clothes dryer.
Accordingly, there is a need for the development of a clothes dryer having a rear end head with relatively large apertures permitting for satisfactory air flow into the clothes dryer while at the same time avoiding or reducing the adverse effects of the direct impingement of warm air creating localized warm areas on the rear surface of the diffuser wall.